Doctoral Researchers

Practices and narratives in the implementation of participation mechanisms in urban development programs

The doctoral research focuses on the narratives and practices of local, national and international bureaucrats in the implementation of participatory mechanisms in urban development programs in Uganda. Developing from a “buzzword” (Cornwall and Brock, 2005) to a “dogma” (Spies, 2009) in development policy, participatory mechanisms almost inevitably form part of the so-called “governance” of international development programs, despite known dangers of elite capture and institutionalisation of existing (unequal) power structures in participatory projects. (de Wit and Berner, 2009; Dill, 2009; Mosse, 2001; Rigon, 2014). Focusing on induced participation (Mansuri and Rao, 2013), this research examines the case study of Municipal Development Forums, participatory governance mechanisms which were established in selected municipalities in Uganda as part of the Cities Alliance programme “Transforming the Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda (TSUPU)” and expanded in scope in the framework of the World Bank programme “Uganda Support for Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID)”. Rather than focusing on the often-criticized gap between the rhetoric and reality of citizen participation, and heeding Cornwall’s call for “clarity through specificity” (Cornwall, 2008) in the study of participation, the doctoral research analyses the context-specific meanings attached to participation by different collective actors and the organizational logics driving practices in the implementation of Municipal Development Forums. It further highlights the importance of interorganizational relations in a field characterized by a multiplicity of organizations, collective actors, and stakeholders. (Mosse, 2004) Methodologically, the research takes a constructivist-interpretive perspective and draws on the methodological toolkit of organizational ethnography, combining observation and qualitative interviews collected in several months of fieldwork.